The partnership between Franco Pepe and Pasquale d'Ambrosio, chef at the 7 Pines Resort in Baja Sardinia, comes into full swing: theirs are four-handed pizzas that celebrate a unique territory and its excellent products, to be enjoyed with a glass of sparkling wine.
Portrait of Franco Pepe on the cover: Photo credits Lido Vannucchi
Photos of the restaurant Spazio By Franco Pepe: It's Me Louis Photography
The concept
Missing from the Costa Smeralda was a major signature pizzeria. It has been opened by 7Pines (here are all the details about the resort and the restaurant inside), which sought and obtained the partnership of the dean of great Italian pizza makers, Franco Pepe. And it has been a resounding success: operating from May to the end of October, seven days a week, but only at dinner, it hosts 70 covers on multiple shifts, always in high demand.
So much so that outsiders make up more than half of the guests. Paired with the concept is a glass of bubbles, be it Ruinart or Moët & Chandon, but there is also a selection of Sardinian craft beers for Gambrinus aficionados. In recent months, the proposal has taken its final shape, with the creation of two exclusive recipes that celebrate a unique territory and its products of excellence.
In all, there are 15 pizzas, including Caiazzo classics such as the Margherita sbagliata e ritrovata, the Scarpetta, the Porkaserta and the sweet Crisommola del Vesuvio; plus new entries, created by four hands. "From the beginning a feeling of friendship was established between us based on shared values, because we both like to let the land speak; the identity is not our ego, but these slices of Campania and Sardinia, told through their ingredients. So on his dough we started playing with our products, added at different times, doing a lot of testing," D'Ambrosio says.
The pizzas and the focus on the local area
"I became an ambassador of our excellence. For example, I brought Gallura's semi-matured pecorino cheese, which is creamed and siphoned, Sardinian red ox carpaccio and sea fennel from our sea, which ended up making up 'Senti-menti di Gallura,' where the play on words indicates a path of feeling. Then one day we were on a boat to La Maddalena, we had some red shrimp with us, which we ate raw with a squeeze of lemon, and we said, why don't we put them on a pizza, maybe with buffalo stracciata from Campania?" Spazio Mare was born, a fried pizza finished with lemon and mysticas from the resort, which can only be tasted in Baja Sardinia.
Franco Pepe has no doubts: "For me, Spazio Mare represents freshness, the sea, everything. Besides bringing my recipes and my Zero Pepe flour blend, I did training with three guys, including Carlo, an excellent professional who protects me on the identity of my pizza on the plate. The director asked me to meet Sardinia even further, and I tried to interpret the typical seada with my fried pizza, as I had done with the pastiera or sfogliatella in the fried cornetto. I rehearsed it in Caiazzo, but we haven't presented it yet. It will definitely be on the menu soon in Baja Sardinia. The idea is always to talk to the customer through what I can do as a baker, which is the dough, fried or baked, savory or sweet."
